The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunications, and specifically to backoff mechanism techniques for spatial reuse.
The deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) in the home, the office, and various public facilities is commonplace today. Such networks typically employ a wireless access point (AP) that connects a number of wireless stations (STAs) in a specific locality (e.g., home, office, public facility, etc.) to another network, such as the Internet or the like. A set of STAs can communicate with each other through a common AP in what is referred to as a basic service set (BSS). However, when two or more unrelated BSSs are close enough to hear each other and are operating in the same frequency (e.g., in a multi-dwelling setting where there may be multiple APs in a close proximity to one another servicing a number of BSS), the transmissions by some STAs in one BSS may affect the STAs in another BSS. Thus, in some examples, nearby BSSs may have overlapping coverage areas and such BSSs may be referred to as overlapping BSSs or OBSSs.
Some WLAN network deployments may be dense (e.g., have a large number of STAs deployed within the coverage area of multiple APs), which may result in issues related to channel or medium usage. Due to collisions and interference among STAs caused by the overlapping BSSs, channel resources may be unnecessarily wasted. For instance, in some examples, one or more STAs or APs may receive packet(s) from an OBSS that are intended for a different STA or AP. Nonetheless, the receiving STA or AP must expend resources decoding the received packet(s). During the decoding process, the STA and/or AP is generally unable to schedule its own transmission on the wireless channel or medium, or to continue the backoff process necessary to transmit Such delays in scheduling traffic transmission may result in reduced throughput rates experienced by the STA and/or the AP.